Meet the Purple People Eater: My longarm

I bought my Gammill Statler longarm nearly 20 years ago. It was love at first sight. She is purple and sparkles in the light. Who wouldn’t love that?!

That April day when she was to move into the house seemed like it took forever to come. The person who was setting her up probably wanted me to leave the room. I was hovering. I saw every last bolt tightened and the computer connected up. It took nearly 6 hours. Now it was up to me. Get the practice fabric, batting and thread and start playing.

One Sunday morning a couple of months later, I was playing on my longarm. I had completed some quilts but today was a try out new techniques day. I had become very comfortable with my machine. That seems to be when things go wrong. They did that Sunday. I don’t remember what I was doing. What I do remember is that I got my finger too close to the needle.  The needle went right through my finger! The scream that came next brought my husband running from the other room. He calmly got my finger dislodged from under the needle and hopper foot. I was lucky. My finger only needed a band-aid. I needed a hug. My husband provided both.

My teenage son, Tim, slept through all this commotion. When he finally woke up and we told him the story he immediately said, “ the one-eyed, one-armed, flying purple people eater!” That’s how my longarm got her name.